Serhiy Zavalko, the coach of the Zhytomyr Sports School, who became the first coach of Ruslan Malynovskyi, the now well-known midfielder of the Ukrainian national team and French club Marseille, told us how his ward took his first steps in football.
- When did you first see Ruslan Malinowski?
- I wasn't supposed to coach in 1993, I was supposed to wait for 1997. However, something inside me yelped, and I went to the director of the academy and asked him to give me the '93.
I saw Ruslan around 2000 (Malynovskyi was 7 years old at the time - ed. note) - his older brother brought him. He was small, but big in terms of build. His legs were very football-like, chiselled for his age. I felt that he would do something with these legs. He had been playing in the yard since he was five, so he already had some skills. He liked to shoot from a distance even then. I asked his older brother to bring me Ruslan's certificate because I couldn't believe he was only seven years old. He started training on the reserve pitch, where there was gravel, but he progressed there too. That's when he realised that there was no point in staying in Zhytomyr, he needed to develop.
- That's when you started getting offers?
- The first one was Dynamo Kyiv, but I had to travel there all the time, and it was a lot of money... His parents worked in a choir: his mother sang and his father played the accordion. The salaries there are small, as you can imagine. Ruslan was invited to join Dynamo by Yevhen Rudakov when he showed himself well in a friendly match with Kyiv.
- Was there no chance of him joining Dynamo?
- He needed to live somewhere, and in Kyiv, they hadn't taken such youngsters [to live in the academy] yet. They could have given him a place to live in about a year, but I didn't want to waste time. Then Shakhtar appeared on the horizon, so I took the kid and went to Donetsk. They liked him immediately, and then he played with the senior players and got a foothold there. By the way, at first Shakhtar didn't believe that Ruslan was born in 1993 either.
- What position did Ruslan start playing in?
- I started in the centre of the pitch as a conductor. I still believe that he can realise his full potential only in the position below the striker. Then he leads the game, shoots from a distance, performs standards, gives the last passes - just watch any cut.
- What was Ruslan Malinowski like among his peers?
- He was the captain and stood out primarily for his play. On the pitch, he could be naughty, earn some cards, but in life he is a modest, balanced guy. There were no problems with him. He grew up to be a professional.
- Who or why did Ruslan fail at Shakhtar?
- Back then, Patrick van Leeuwen was the director of the academy, and Ruslan didn't fit his system. He didn't expel Malinowski, but he didn't give him a sense of certainty.
Once Ruslan came on holiday and we worked with him. I took him to Vinnytsia's Niva, coached by my friend Oleh Fedorchuk. So Malinowski could have ended up in a poor team in the First League, which, however, produced many UPL players and winners of foreign trophies.
But then Ruslan was returned to Shakhtar-3, where he proved himself. A little later, there was an option with Sevastopol, who played in the first league. They really liked him there.
Ruslan made the transition from children's and youth football to adult football in good time. In general, many of the Shakhtar-3 players later went on loan to other teams: Ruslan Malinovsky, Pylyp Budkivsky, Oleksandr Karavayev, Serhiy Bolbat, Mykyta Shevchenko.
- So Ruslan didn't succeed at Shakhtar because of van Leeuwen?
- Well, yes. He didn't see any potential in him, or something...
Vladyslav Liutostanskyi